Inventory of the Manigault Family Papers, 1824-1897

Collection Number 484


Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Collection Information
Descriptive Summary
Administrative Information
Online Catalog Headings
Biographical/Historical Note
Collection Overview
Related Collections
Contact Information:
Manuscripts Department
CB#3926, Wilson Library
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
Phone: 919/962-1345
Fax: 919/962-3594
Email: mss@email.unc.edu
URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/
Back to Top

Descriptive Summary

Repository
Southern Historical Collection
Creator
Manigault family.
Title
Manigault Family Papers, 1824-1897
Call Number
484
Language of Materials
Materials in English
Extent
Items: 19
Linear Feet: 1.0
Abstract
The Manigault family of Charleston, S.C., and plantations in the Berkeley District, S.C., and on Argyle Island in the Savannah River, Ga., included Charles, merchant and rice planter, and his sons Gabriel Edward Manigault, planter, physician, and curator of the Museum of Natural History at the College of Charleston, and Louis Manigault, planter.
The collection includes plantation records of the Silk Hope Plantation, Berkeley District, S.C., and the Gowrie Plantation and East Hermitage Plantation, Argyle Island, Ga. Plantation records contain information on slaves (including a photograph of a runaway slave), rice growing, market conditions, the weather, and other topics. Also included are papers of Charles Manigault, among them a will and essays on slavery and other topics, and a manuscript autobiography of Gabriel Edward Manigualt, detailing his studies in medical schools in Europe and at the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, his Confederate army career with the 4th South Carolina Cavalry Regiment, and other matters. There is also a microfilmed album of Louis Manigault, containing letters, bits of a Civil War diary, wartime clippings, and other papers, 1861-1868, related to his service as secretary to Confederate army surgeon Joseph Jones.

Back to Top

Administrative Information

Restrictions to Access
No restrictions.
Usage Restrictions
Researchers are asked to use the facsimile of the slave photograph in folder 3 to preserve the integrity of the original.
Alternate Form of Material
Microfilm copy available.
Reel 1: Series 1
Reel 2: Series 2.3
Series 1-2.2 are available from University Publications of America as part of the Records of ante-bellum southern plantations from the Revolution through the Civil War, Series J.
Alternate Form of Material
Digitized version of 1833-1876 journal available (see below).
Acquisitions Information
Purchased in 1940 and 1946; Louis Manigault album lent for filming by Mrs. G. Manigault Jenkins in 1947.
Processing Information
Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, June 1990
Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom, May 2005
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the Manigault Family Papers #484, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Copyright Notice
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Back to Top

Online Catalog Headings

These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.

Argyle Island (Ga.)--Social life and customs.
Autobiographies--South Carolina--History--19th century.
Berkeley District (S.C.)--Social life and customs.
Charleston (S.C.)--Social life and customs.
College of Charleston--Students--Social life and customs.
Confederate States of America. Army. South Carolina Cavalry Regiment, 4th.
Confederate States of America. Army--Surgeons.
Diaries.
East Hermitage Plantation (Ga.)
Family--South Carolina--Social life and customs.
Gowrie Plantation (Argyle Island, Ga.)
Jones, Joseph, 1833-1896.
Manigault, Charles Izard, 1795-1874.
Manigault family.
Manigault, Gabriel E. (Gabriel Edward), 1833-1899.
Manigault, Louis, 1828-1899.
Medical College of the State of South Carolina--Students--History--19th century.
Medical education--History--19th century.
Plantation owners--Georgia.
Plantation owners--South Carolina.
Plantations--Georgia.
Plantations--South Carolina.
Rice--Planting--Georgia--History--19th century.
Silk Hope Plantation (Berkeley District, S.C.)
Slavery--Georgia.
Slavery--South Carolina.
Slaves--Photographs.
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives, Confederate.
Back to Top

Related Collections

Manigault family papers at the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University; the South Carolina State Archives; and the South Carolina Historical Society.
Back to Top

Biographical/Historical Note

The Manigault family of South Carolina and Georgia was large and powerful. Materials in this collection relate chiefly to the following individuals.

Charles Manigault (1795-1874) was born in Charleston, S.C., and spent his early life in New York and Philadelphia. He was at the University of Pennsylvania in 1814 when, as a member of the militia, he was called out to defend the city from the British. Charles became a merchant and traveled widely, visiting Asia, Australia, and South America. In 1823, he returned to South Carolina and acquired the Silk Hope plantation at the head of the Cooper River in the Berkeley District of South Carolina. In 1833, he bought rice lands on Argyle Island in the Savannah River, several miles upstream from the port of Savannah. The island property included two adjoining plantations Gowrie and East Hermitage. Charles also owned the Camp Plantation, which was inland on the river.

Charles's son Gabriel Edward Manigault (1833-1899), was educated as a physician and zoologist, studying at the College of Charleston and the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, from which he was graduated in 1854. He also studied in Europe. Gabriel never practiced medicine. Instead, while maintaining his planter status, he became, in 1873, the curator of the Museum of Natural History at the College of Charleston and was also a lecturer at the college and president of the Carolina Art Association. During the Civil War, he served as private and adjutant in the 4th South Carolina Cavalry Regiment.

Louis Manigault, another son of Charles, was born around 1829, and, after schooling and traveling, managed properties for his father. During the Civil War, he moved from Charleston to Macon and Augusta, Georgia, from which he made annual visits to the Savannah River plantations. He also served as secretary to Joseph Jones (1833-1896), Confederate army surgeon and professor at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.

Back to Top

Collection Overview

The Manigault family collection is chiefly plantation records of the Silk Hope Plantation, Berkeley District, S.C., and the Gowrie Plantation and East Hermitage Plantation, Argyle Island, Ga. Plantation records contain information on slaves (including a photograph of a runaway slave), rice growing, market conditions, the weather, and other topics. Also included are papers of Charles Manigault, among them a will and essays on slavery and other topics, and a manuscript autobiography of Gabriel Edward Manigualt, detailing his studies in medical schools in Europe and at the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, his Confederate army career with the 4th South Carolina Cavalry Regiment, and other matters. There is also a microfilmed album of Louis Manigault, containing letters, bits of a Civil War diary, wartime clippings, and other papers, 1861-1868, related to his service as secretary to Confederate army surgeon Joseph Jones.

Back to Top

Arrangement of Collection

1. Plantation Records
2. Other Materials
2.1. Charles Manigault Papers
2.2. Gabriel Edward Manigualt Autobiography
2.3. Louis Manigualt Album (microfilm only)

Detailed Description of the Collection

1. Plantation Records, 1833-1887.

5 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
RESTRICTED: Onsite researchers are asked to use the facsimile of the slave photograph in folder 3 to preserve the integrity of the original. The photograph is also available in the digitized version of the journal (see link below).
Plantation record books as listed below. Most of the books contain information on all three major Manigault plantations: Silk Hope, at the head of the Cooper River in Berkeley District, S.C., and Gowrie and East Hermitage on Argyle Island in the Savannah River, Ga., several miles upstream from the port of Savannah.
Folder 1
Volume 1: 1833-1834
Slave records listing names of slaves, materials distributed to them, their movements among the plantations, and other information.
Folder 2
Volume 2: 1833-1855
Front to back: slave records similar to those above. Back to front: overseer's planting records; medicinal recipes; memoranda on physical improvements, probably at the Gowrie Plantation; and a handwritten copy of Heyward's Directions for Planting (1821).
Folder 3-4
Volume 3: 1833-1876

Digitized version of this volume
Compiled by Louis Manigault between 1856 and 1879, the journal includes information on plantation life, slaves and slavery, rice cultivation, market conditions, accounts, and other topics. Notes and memoranda kept by Charles Manigault regarding the plantations during the 1830s and 1840s were pasted into the journal. See digitized version for more complete description. Folder 3 contains a photograph of a runaway slave (facsimile available). Folder 4 contains enclosures that were found loose in the volume.
Folder 5-6
Volume 4: 1833-1877
Similar to volumes described above, but also contains materials on slave auctions, memoranda on agricultural and economic conditions, and a colored drawing of a house at the Gowrie Plantation. Folder 6 contains enclosures that were found loose in the volume.
Folder 7
Volume 5: 1875-1887
Records of the Gowrie Plantation. Included is a small amount of business correspondence, copies of legal documents, tax receipts, and clippings about floods in 1887 and 1888.

Back to Top

2. Other Papers, 1825-1897.

14 items.
Materials relating to Charles, Gabriel Edward, and Louis Manigault
Back to Top
2.1. Charles Manigault Papers, 1825-1872.
12 items.
Letters, copies of letters, and notes, 1824 1872, chiefly relating to business affairs; and undated writings, most of which chronicle family history.
Folder 8
Letters and notes
Folder 9
Writings
Includes an account of Manigault's father's move to the North, a preliminary draft of Manigault's will, "Some Things Relating to Our Family Affairs," and "The Close of the War--The Negro, etc."
Back to Top
2.2. Gabriel Edward Manigault Autobiography, 1887-1897.
1 item.
Handwritten autobiography of Gabriel Edward Manigault, 544 pages, written between 1887 and 1897 in Charleston, S.C. Included are details of Gabriel Edward's life and family history.
Folder 10-13
Autobiography
Back to Top
2.3. Louis Manigault Album, 1861-1868.
1 item.
Album compiled after the Civil War. Items include tipped in Civil War correspondence between Louis and Gabriel Edward Manigault; clippings about the progress of the war; copies of correspondence and journal entries, 1863-1864, of Joseph Jones, Confederate army surgeon and professor at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta; Confederate money and flag designs; and other items.
Reel 2
Album

Back to Top